Scanning an Album Page for Translation

Yes, it can be done. Scan pages as image file, run image file through OCR software (since Spanish, may or may not need one that recognizes characters not in standard English, i.e. OCR language option -- probably can get away without it), copy text and paste into a language translator.

Some scanners, such as my book scanner, comes bundled with this software so that it is seamless to scan and convert to text/pdf file. I don't remember if my free bundled version has foreign language option, but I'd guess the upgraded versions would.

As a benefit of work I have the full Adobe Suite (with constant updates from the cloud access) , which seems to do a god job of deciding what is text and what is image-  It is called simply  Acrobat DC-  no Reader, which will not convert (I occasionally open the wrong version)

I have been converting scanned pages from catalogues to English-  sometimes it gives me some wird formatting and characters

I have the Epson V600 Photo scanner and it may well have the OCR built in

Just a heads up, there are at least a few websites out there now that will OCR and translate just by drag-n-dropping an image onto the webpage. Free.


Tech has definitely come a very long way in the last few years, eh?   

If you google "image to text" I see some free software but did not check anything.

My book scanner did come bundled with Abbyy FineReader, and that's exactly how it functions -- 2 step/software process.  I find it a little slow, but it does the job and can work independent of scanner software.

Ironically, the one scanner I had that didn't come bundled with OCR software is my Epson WF!  Not sure why?

My Canon imageCLASS scanning software has built in OCR.  It produces searchable PDF without the user ever seeing a "jump" to OCR software.  While the scan quality is not good in terms of color and contrast/brightness (cannot change settings), the OCR is remarkably accurate and fast.

Ryan ,

I decided against the CZUR scanner because I noticed when I was taking simple camera pics, the room lighting/glare made a huge difference. I pretty much had to go next to a large un-paned window and rely on natural sunlight to get pictures without glare. Also, many books with tight binding, or very very thick and small binding margins (like Scott catalogs), you will get blurred areas which will not OCR properly. Quite frankly, if I have to get something like that, I will simply keep using my iphone camera -- it produces "decent" results, and I simply use the basic Windows Photo Viewer to flip through the jpgs, and the scroll on my mouse to quickly magnify whatever area my cursor is located. While not "searchable", it's fast and convenient for looking up a stamp price. PDFs are searchable, but really large files can be slow to scroll through.

I use my Epson WF for large-sized documents. Not sure why this model didn't come bundled with free OCR software.

The book scanner I ended up purchasing was the Plustek OpticBook scanner in your first picture.  However, I purchased the cheaper 3900 model (<$300 including shipping).  It is essentially the same as the 4800(?), except it only scans up to 6mm of the scanner edge instead of 2mm(?)  A friend of mine had the 3900 and told me he hadn't encountered a situation where he needed that 4mm, so I elected not to spend the extra $400+ (that comes to $100/mm!!!    ).

The 3900 does its job.  Slow like normal scanners, not like the CZUR or camera/iphone pics.  But it is faster than my Canon imageCLASS, and the bundled software is also designed for book scanning (e.g., auto page-flip, immediate basic user image processing...) although the OCR is a pass-thru to Abbyy FineReader (cannot do until you finish the scanning).  It does come with a pdf "combiner" for those of us who don't have Adobe subscriptions.

But, know the limitations for Plustek.  My experience:

--  scanning color is significantly off;  I haven't calibrated my scanner (I never do), and not sure if I can do that with Plustek;  it was designed to be a book scanner, not a picture/stamp scanner
--  it takes a long time to warm up (minutes), which to me doesn't bode well in terms of lamp life
--  in reality, it is 6mm + 2mm+, because on most books you can't really get the binding flush against the edge
--  unless it is a very thin pamplet, you still have to press down/against the binding so the page will be reasonably flat near the binding edge;  otherwise, you will get some shadowing near the binding

I discovered the hard way, when scanning prestige booklets, that if I press too hard, I will end up popping the binding or putting a noticeable "bend" in the page/binding.  

In hindsight, given that I spent nearly $300 for it, I should have gone ahead and forked over another 2x+ to get the additional 4mm.  But, too late.  So far, the only unexpected need for that additional 4mm has been:  prestige booklets, books with 2-page pictures running across the binding, books with tight margins (if the book a thick hardback, and you can't physically measure a 1cm margin on the binding edge, you are likely to run into some issues).  So those, I've gone back to using iphone pics or just letting the scan get chopped/blurred out.

For my thick catalogs, such as Scott, I found it is too cumbersome having to lift the thick catalog and flip a page when using the book scanner.  For a dozen pages, fine, but for a large section.  Ugh.  I've gone back to using iphone pics, and flipping through it like the CZUR unit.  I have to hold the camera in my hand, can't really be wearing headset as I need to "hear" the iphone "click", and I look nothing like that model, but just not ready to spend $170 on yet another digitizing desk unit.

Just my opinions.  If you have any specific questions about the Plustek, feel free to ask.

You're very welcome, Ryan.

I went to the Plustek website to confirm some of my numbers (the ones with all the ? next to them), because I was going by my unreliable memory.  I don't remember the difference between the 3800L and 3900, but I got the 3900.

It comes bundled with 2 pieces of scanning software.  The one I use will save as jpg, pdf, tiff, but not bmp.  But, you can save as no compression jpg if you don't have tiff software.

There are certain colors that my particular scanner doesn't handle well, especially light color pastels.  For example, light beige or peach doesn't scan well at all.  I had done a comparison between my Opticbook and imageCLASS that showed the results for that color.  It was going to be for a review thread that I never got around to finish scanning comparison pics.  The light beige/peach either doesn't show up or barely shows up at all for the Opticbook.  Let me know if you want to see that comparison, and I can hunt down and post those pics.

One thing I like about the 3900 compared to 4800.  The 3900 has large color coded buttons.  While you can control it from you computer, sometimes if you are pressing against the binding, your finger can only reach "so far".  Large buttons are helpful.  Also, the color coding makes it easier to remember which buttons to press.  It's easier for me to remember button color than button location.  JMO

My own scanner, an HP, is also poor with some colours. Yellow is especially bad, I don't know how it can get that so far off. And somehow, red scans nicely, blue scans nicely, and purple comes out wrong. I can't figure that one out either. I run a batch colour level on a finished scan to make it come out more like what I see and the scans look OK once I've done that, but some of the colour tones are wrong. I tried to fix it once by scanning a colour guide and then manipulating individual colour components in an attempt to match each colour chip and wow, what I mess I had after I was done! Those levels got thrown away and I went back to using my other method.

Ryan

Actually, it was after consulting with PostmasterGS that I decided on the 3900, and have been pretty happy about the unit. So thanks!

Like him, I use it for scanning books, so color isn't really that important. And the files are for my personal use, so they don't have to be perfect. I use a different scanner for stamps. I only mentioned the color issue, in case someone was thinking about using it for scanning stamps as well, and the edge details in case you were preparing something for distribution.

My scanner did OK with Scott catalogues. I purchased the pages from a few countries, tore out the pages & scanned them individually, then assembled them into a pdf for each. Of course if you own the full catalogue, ripping it up isn't a very good option! But separate countries worked perfectly for me. I usually discard the loose pages when finished. Here is a jpg of page 1 of the Scott catalogue. The pdf zooms in beautifully, unlike this jpg!



The text is selectable, so one can copy from it and search for words.

I actually prefer the Windows Photo Viewer to magnify jpg images, because I can enlarge "on the fly" using the scroll on my mouse.  I find the Acrobat Reader magnify function cumbersome.  Of course, the jpgs are not searchable like the pdfs.  Can't have everything (although we try to do that with stamps!).

This will solve your book scanning problems

LINK